Saturday 31st October

My apologies, the week has been rather hectic, I'll have time spare over the weekend, and catch up Monday morning.

Sunday 25th October

I found PF Network internet cafe Sat morning, and successfully lost half the day there, ok, Zoe helped, I had to leave though, it is $10 per 30 minutes, and I’m a skinflint, as it was, it still cost me $35 but it was well worth it. I didn’t get to the Global Warming Outdoor gathering at the Cultural Village Centre, it started raining, and I thought as much as I’d love to go and cause arguments, I didn’t need to be getting wet doing it.

After I cut CO2 levels to 350, I’ll part the Pacific Ocean, solve the Israel/Palestine conflict, sort out the USA financial problem, and give everyone a chicken in a pot for dinner. Blathering idiots that came up with that scam. It has no show of succeeding, but to follow their arguments and recommendations will put every developed country back 30 years, and prevent developing countries from lifting their standards of living. Malthusian population control socialistic world government idiots. They’ll be first up against the wall when I’m King, followed by the Politicians, Lawyers and any sock and sandal wearing lentil munching looney left wing green party people I missed the first time.

We’ve got a busy week ahead, I have to send a crew to the Memorial Gardens first thing to give it a makeover, lawns, trimming etc before Tuesday morning, for a ceremony being held there, sort out who we are going to send to Commonwealth Avenue for the week, I think we might make a roster for it, so everyone gets a 5 day week in turn doing it, although I think it may turn into a bigger job once all the other business see what we are doing there, although the Chinese owned shops won’t be part of it, miserly robbing bastards. Then there are still plants and fences to be shifted from the Gardens from the old nursery, plus the orchids, we have 6 school kids from Woodford School coming for 2 weeks work experience from Tuesday, I stupidly told Keithie earlier today that I’ll start the last course for the year next week, well, it’s not stupid, but as if I haven’t got enough to do now.

Tiffany and I will be in the BJS office each morning this week checking email, SIEA and Telekom have both said power and phone lines will be connected this week, I’m taking the Samsung mobile into Telekom tomorrow to see if they can get it to work, if not I’ll put it in the box marked junk in the spare room. I know not having the pin code isn’t going to help, and it’s too light to use as a fishing sinker.

I’m regretting having the Vodafone mobile drowned, it was easy to use, and worked. And it had a camera.

I had a good morning at the market again, surprising how the prices drop a bit when they know you are a “local” and there every week, it’s only taken me 9 months to get to that stage. Handing out prints of the photos I take every now and then helps as well. $5 off the price for bananas, $2 off the price for pawpaw, and a free bunch of spring onions if I bought 2. There were a few tourists there with a guide from the Tourism office, trying to work out the prices converted back to US$. They’d been to Central Market yesterday judging by the comments about the difference between Kukum Fish Market and Central Market, less rubbish and friendlier people.

Yesterdays rain didn’t stop till early this morning, everything is all washed clean, most of the roadsides edges have been flooded away, so briefly it looked quite tidy and clean. The big tree on the corner of the Ba’hai property dropped a branch yesterday in the rain, huge lump of timber, took out a tree under it, and damaged another mango tree as well. We may get the clean up job, but it will take a bigger chainsaw than the little one we have.

I’m going to make up a set of flash cards for Jennifer and Imelda, and me, with the latin names, and common and island names of the plants on, so we can all get them in our memory. Especially with the fruit and nut species here, every Island has a different common name for the same tree, it gets really confusing at times.

Friday 23rd October

What a fun day it turned into. We were hoping to be out of the office and away without too much fuss, but it turned into a stand up confrontation with Fred and Clement from Forestry getting upset with us stripping everything out of the office, desks, chairs, telephones, cables, internet connections everything. David really impressed me this morning during the whole thing. He had Clement and Fred almost in his face, fists clenched, shouting abuse at him, and he never raised his voice, unfolded his arms, just let them shout and threaten him. We’ll be in the Solomon Star again tomorrow, Fred got them down to show them what SEB were doing, and making it impossible for Forestry to work in the office, the fact that the phone/internet connections were in SEB’s name, didn’t mean anything to him.

It helped pass the morning anyway. For the past 8 months during all this Fred has been coming down to the Gardens with a self satisfied smirk on his face, but not today. If he’d been white, his face would have been purple with rage, as it was, he’s from Western Province, and is one of the blacker skinned Melanesians, even so, he was blacker than normal. Tiffany and David, and me, were still laughing this afternoon when we finished work.

Adrian turned up after it was all over, and wanted to know everything as usual. He didn’t believe that David just stood there, and never lost his cool. And David was doing really well explaining, till he said to Adrian, “I am David, I’m a fucking civilised man”

After I stopped laughing, I have to admit he couldn’t have said a better phrase, it broke all the tension of the past few months, and the rest of the day was just a relief for everyone, knowing we were out of all the crap and conflict.

I know I shouldn’t be wishing Forestry trouble, spite is such a petty thing to indulge in, but...............

John and Patrick from Woodford School called in later in the day, to make sure the Cross Country could still go ahead on the 5th November. I’ve told Clement about it, and walked him over the tracks yesterday showing him the repairs needed after the rains, washouts, holes, fallen trees, that we haven’t done the last week or two. John looked over the lawn area, and said it was a disgrace, which it really is now, we haven’t touched anything for about 3 weeks now, since Forestry got all belligerent. John is going to hold the Cross Country, and if the Gardens aren’t up to the standard we always had them in 2 weeks, he is going to make sure the Solomon Star knows.

We picked up 2 more contracts today as well, for Pacific Casino, the one I mentioned a few posts back, and Civic Centre Gardens as well. Keithie sent Pacific Casino the newspaper clipping with a contact attached, and a note saying “It’s about time you signed this”. It was returned today, signed with a cheque for the next month attached. We also have a fulltime street cleaner for Commonwealth Ave, paid for, it’s the street at Point Cruz with the Lime Lounge, and BJS Agencies, and the US Consulate in it. The fact that Keithie is the US Consul, with her office there in her husbands building, BJS Agencies, might have had something to do with it, but who cares, they are paying, and we get someone employed 5 days a week and it starts getting some of the town cleaned up.

The Childrens Park and the Police Memorial Park are going to be sponsored by HK Logistics, enough for us to put someone there full time everyday, which will help stop the graffiti, and rubbish being dumped there.

Keithie has finally accepted that the pricing for the roundabouts has been too low, and we are increasing it in 2 stages, from $1,000 per month to $1250 for next year, then up to what I want, $1500 after that.

The next few months are going to be tight for us, but we’re out of all the crap and Government Departmental infighting, and on a site that has everything we need, out of Honiara, away from the main road, and a good site to set up on once we get the lease and tenure sorted.

We have funding coming from the German Embassy, the EU Non State Actors Fund, and Chie at the Japanese Consul has told us to re-apply for the Nursery Funding again by March next year once we have a signed lease agreement with Hasting-Deering. It’s just getting through the next few months. And keeping the work crew together.

Tiffany and I spent the afternoon setting up the office container with the office desks. I’ll put a false wall in the end, with a door and the airconditioner, I may use the security door we had at the Gardens, although it will negate the aircon, ok, change that.

I’ve been impatient to do something the past 9 month, now I can’t wait to actually get started with a proper nursery that will be ours with no outside politics involved.


Steve agreed that yes I will have to write up a whole new Project Proposal for VSA, and that he would ignore any bad language expressed by me during the next few weeks while I do so. There are probably 1,000 other things I would prefer to do, watching geckos, counting the leaves falling off the breadfruit trees, trimming nostril hair, but it shouldn’t take too much time to write up. I’ve written proposals for courses and training schools, it’s just more of the same, and actually sitting down and doing it.

Friday 23rd October.

There may be a break in transmission after this. We’re moving everything to Ranandi today, well, 99% is there already, it’s just the office desks and computers left here now, and they’ll be taken out this afternoon. We haven’t got power or telekom connected yet, that may take a few days, I’ll try to get into one of the netcafes in town, but neither of them are open after 12 on Saturday. Steve has found a couple of wireless hotspots in town, outside King Solomon Hotel, and by the British High Commission that are unsecured, so I may park up for a while there to try.

Wednesday was a shambles, Tiffany needed a file urgently for the Auditors, and naturally it was at Ranandi, in a carton, in the container. We found it, but it took a while. Imelda and Jennifer have got everything sorted with the temp set up, plants all sorted into varieties, shade area set up.

Thursday I took a mental health day and stayed home. Mainly because I don’t do walking in the rain to work in the mornings. Tiffany knows to send the truck for me if I’m needed, so there isn’t any problem. Apart from which, it was the first day since Monday I had water in the house, so I made the most of it, and got my washing done, floors mopped, had a 30 minute shower, cleaned all the kitchen up, and spent the afternoon baking and making curry and pita bread. And a double garlic loaf.

It rained all day, which took a lot of the dust and rubbish away, and filled my water tank, although I don’t use it very often, just for when the house water system isn’t working like this week. Steve is talking about getting me a pressure pump system I can couple up to the house to take care of the lack of water. Getting a pot full of water from the rain tank outside is a pita at times. And I’m too cheap to go buying a water container to have inside.

Hopefully Monday will be a better start, we will be all at Ranandi, and things can only get better from here on.

Oh, I found out what system Clement has on his laptop, Vista, and I’m very pleased I never kept it on this one, and reverted back to XP. Going from 98se to XP was easy, after looking at Vista, I’m pleased I didn’t keep it, and Win7 looks good from what I’ve seen and read of it so far.

Tuesday 20th October

Happy Birthday Mel, Hope you had a good day.

The container finally arrived today at Ranandi, the 9.30am delivery time stretched to 1.30pm, but we’re all used to that now here. Adrian turned up to supervise, I held off strangling him again, but I’ve noticed I don’t get as riled with him lately, it’s more that I just don’t care what he does now, I’ll come along after and fix it up, but it’s not worth the stress trying to deal with him. I actually like him, but not to work with.





Tiffany and I are meant to be moving into the office at BJS agencies, but we are both thinking that once we are in there, any action on the Ranandi site will stop, and the chances of getting the container wired and set up as an office will be put on the far back burner, with the forever promise that once we have some spare money it will get done. I’ve got a meeting with Keithie for Tiffany and I this Friday morning, I’ve cut the agenda to the bare basics, Tiffany and the course at USP, done over with, move on, then a date to have the container wired up, and when have we got a meeting with Hasting-Deering about the land at the rear of the site. I already know the last one, Jason is back from Brisbane Monday, so hopefully by Wednesday we’ll have some form of lease on the property and can start getting it built up.
My mind has struck a huge blank space with the VSA report. I’ve filled it out and sent to Steve, but I know I have to write a whole new project proposal, with objectives, indicators etc. I’ll leave that till the weekend and my mind is clear of all the other crap we are dealing with at the moment.




Clement from Forestry that is working in the office with us now while we are shifting is fairly typical of most Solomon Island middle management. Nice guy, easy to get on with, but has no understanding of computers, and more importantly, internet. He had a 4gb thumbstick he was trying to open today, and said that his computer said it had a virus on it. What does that mean, and how can he open his files. I asked if he had any antivirus programme, and got a blank look, then if he had a firewall, same response.

Took his thumbdrive, plugged into the laptop and ran my Norton over it. It had 2 keylogger exe files, and a logstealer exe file on it. After explaining what they were, he decided the files on the thumbdrive weren’t needed anyway, I cleaned the exe files off, well Norton did, then opened the drive to check the files, but he said he had them on the main drive, so could I just reformat the drive.

Did that, then spent most of the afternoon installing AVG and trying to find his windows firewall and turn it on. He’s running some version of Windows I’ve never seen, it could be Millenium, and stuff is not where it should be. He has Norton installed, but Forestry have never paid for the subscription so it is about 5 years out of date.

It is fairly common here for puters to have viruses, Steve warned me before I arrived, even the 2 office computers we have, well, Tiffany uses, were full of crap when I arrived, popups all over the place, some strange stuff showing up, corrupted files etc. I’ve got AVG installed on both, plus Spybot search and Destroy, and put the Firewalls on to always on mode. People here just don’t realise that not everything on the internet is as honest as they are. Same with internet scams.

I found out last week Tiffany has been writing to a poor girl in a refugee camp in Liberia, whose father was killed by rebels and all her money (US$12.5 Million dollars) is being held by some bank that won’t let her get it without some foreign persons help. I had some fun with that, showed Tiffany Scamwarners, and 419eater, then showed her how to find headers in the emails so she could track where they were coming from. Then she said she had a Lawyer in the UK that was helping, so that lead to a website I’ll have to report for killing.

The ip’s in both cases were from Owerri in Nigeria, and Tiffany is having fun with the scam letters now, I don’t know if she’s replying, but I know she’s been busy this afternoon tracking where they are coming from. I kept hearing, “You faker, you’re in Nigeria/Ghana and Warren, where is Burkina Faso?”

I wrote up a long article a while back about internet scams that the Solomon Star published, and had a good response from that. It took up a full page in the viewpoint section so it would have reached everyone here.

I know I keep saying the food here agrees with me too much, but I had a pleasant surprise this morning when I found the scales at work, I’ve actually dropped 5 kilos since I’ve been here, I need to drop at least another 5 if not 10, to feel comfortable, but now I know I am getting it off slowly I’m happy. I’m 82 kilos now, I should be about 75kg or a bit less I think. Less rice and more fruit would probably help. And getting out into the Nursery more often as well, so hopefully the setting up at Ranandi will help.

Thank God I loaded all the music up, I know, I keep mentioning it, but it really is a good sanity aid. Gary Moore and Jonny Lang have been having a good workout, and I’ve got a couple of mixes done that just play for a couple of hours. Aretha Franklin, Judy Collins, that goes into Flogging Molly, the Young Dubliners, Jefferson Airplane, Van Morrison, Grace Jones and then about an hour of techno/trance from the Gathering New Year Party Cd’s

Monday 19th October

Today felt like a Friday, both Tiffany and I are just exhausted with the moving, trying to juggle the workcrew so the contract work gets done, with the need to have all the plants moved out of the nursery and taken to Ranandi. We still have the shelter shed to be taken down, it was meant to have been lifted off last week, but as is the case here, the crane never arrived to lift the roof, then the day got put off, and now it looks like we’ll have to strip the iron off, and dismantle it all completely.

Then the container never arrived at Ranandi on Saturday, so our hope of getting the office stuff moved didn’t happen, the best day so far is tomorrow morning, at 9.30, a time and day I’ll believe only after it happens. Add in the truck back in the garage, again, or is it just once more, I’ve lost count of how many weeks it has been back and forth now, and still not fixed. I touched the brakes going in this morning, and the front left wheel locked up and pulled the truck sideways on the dirt at the bottom of my road where it meets Mendana Ave. Luckily it was facing the way I was going so it was a matter of driving off and not looking back. And being 6.30am there were very few cars on the main road.

By the time we had an email from Keithie getting all upset over the USP Course I sent Tiffany on, both of us had had enough. Tiffany sent an email back to Keithie telling her that if she didn’t like what we had to do while Keithie was away for 6 weeks in Europe then Tiffany was leaving, thank you for the position but it isn’t worth it, goodbye.

That pulled the pin on that powder keg, the next email was a bit more conciliatory. It all goes back to what I first noticed when I arrived here, and the remnants of the old Colonial days, when the natives were cute lovely little brown people, but you had to have a white person in charge. Tiffany is probably overqualified for the position she has with SEB, well, SEB is beneath her capabilities is a better way of putting it, but as far as Keithie is concerned she’s just another little brown person who will never amount to anything, and has to have someone in charge. I know I sound really jaundiced, it’s been that sort of period lately for us.

Anyway, I got my VSA report finished, or as much as I could without getting too involved, all the right boxes ticked, the right words written, the usual platitudes put in the right place. I know Steve won’t like it, but he has my seperate report to send as well, which really expresses how I feel. The official form has no place for the sort of stuff that happens here, or anywhere to even write it. Ok, it does say to put stuff on a seperate sheet if it isn’t covered, which I basically did with the 6 pages of personal observations.

And all through this, the work crew turn up every morning, smiling, happy, and work all day no matter what we have for them to do. And take pride in what they do. Steve told me while we down at Komunimboko that David is quietly happy I’m there. Steve does check on what I’m doing, I know I give him a fair bit of stick at times, but he does work extremely hard for VSA. Anyway, David said I’m the first advisor who has stood up to Keithie, and defended the workcrew over anything, let alone all the stuff that’s happened this year. It’s easy to support the work crew though, they work their butts off, in all weather, do a really good neat tidy job, and always look happy doing it.

So I goofed off for most of the day, Tiffany and I were coming up with ideas at times, and with our desks being crammed together now, it was easy for both of us to just toss ideas around whenever we felt like it.

Thanks Zoe for helping pass the long interminable stretch from midday till 4.30 on skype. And for the really off beat conversation we got into.

We will probably move into the BJS office this week for a while , not that it is something we want to do, right next door to Keithies office, but I can always vanish out to Ranandi and talk to the plants.

I know it is all making me depressed, my camera has barely been out for ages, which for me is a sure sign I’ve given up. So it’s back to the self motivation and force myself to start with the camera again. Same as I did in Ireland, I might have just wanted to stay in the flat, but I’d drive for miles each weekend, just to take photos of some obscure little place, or not so obscure like the pics I got for Marye of Ballyjamesduff. And all the dolemns, circles, tombs everywhere.

It’s 5.30am Tuesday, just looked back over this, sorry for the wallowing in despair anguish. I get frustrated with things here, and knowing that most of it won’t change, and having to try and work around all the inefficiencies, the tribal customs that really don’t work in a city but you have to adapt to them, and the overall failure of everything it becomes emotionally exhausting. Still, change what you can, accept what you can’t change, and work with what you’ve got.

At least I’m back to the early morning brisk walk into work for another week or so. Coolest part of the day so it is really pleasant walking through town.

Sunday 18th October

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Memorial Garden Henderson Field






Rove Prison front garden now


Another weekend gone by, I’m starting to resent weekends actually. Especially when I have no power or water, and the truck is having another of its fits and won’t start. Ok the truck I can cope with, it has been a constant run of crap repairs for the past 4 months so I can’t say it isn’t unexpected. Not having power really annoys me. I can’t run the laptop for more than a few hours on the battery, and I don’t think fast enough to get everything done in that time.

I’m still writing the VSA report, well, doing a lot of split screen copy/paste then write up thoughts and recommendations under the pasted stuff. I can see Steve and I having to write a whole new project plan and achievement indicators though. My original project is long gone, and it is now trying to establish a new nursery from scratch. Which is good, something I can do, but I hate the seemingly endless amount of paperwork that is also involved.

I was meant to be out at the site at Ranandi yesterday, the container we are going to use as an office was meant to be delivered, but the truck decided it didn’t feel like going anywhere, and I ran the battery flat trying to get it started. Even pushing it around the carpark here didn’t make any difference, it was having a real sulk. All I can hope is the container went onto the blocks we had set out for it.

Missed out on getting to the shops as well, I have enough stuff here to get by on for the week anyway, although I’ll need another 5kg bag of rice. The last one lasted 6 weeks, which is an improvement, I was going through 5kg in a month to start with. More varied diet now though, rice, spaghetti, kumara and cassava and more stir-fry than just rice with curry. Still not losing any weight though, which is more a reflection of how little I actually do all day while we are sorting out the mess we are in.

Keithie noticed the USP payment for last month in the accounts and wanted to know what it was for. It was for a 1 week course in Proposal Writing, which I sent Tiffany to. USP is the University of the South Pacific. Tiffany needed to go, Wills is not going to be available to us to write the Funding Proposals for the Aid Agencies for the rest of the year, and probably most of next year, and I don’t do PC Speak as it is required for the formats. Project descriptions, project costings yes, but the Funding Proposals have a specific writing style that as much as I would like to be able to write, tends to bring out the worst side of me.

Anyway, I have an argument with her booked for this week about it, as far as I’m concerned, it was something that Tiffany needed to do, she is going to be the one writing the Funding Applications up in the future. I’m not going to do it, on the basis that if I do it, it isn’t giving Tiffany any independence, and making her, and SEB dependent on advisors for everything. I’m here to advise, not take over, something Keithie and I have a bit of a difference over.

If you’ve read some of my earlier posts on funding and the formats you’ll know what I mean.

Anyway, so much for Saturday, I got water from the raintank, and got the floors mopped, there is an incredible amount of dust comes in despite the fine mesh over all the windows, and all the dead cockroaches cleaned out again. I sprayed Friday night, all the cupboard edges, any cracks in the walls, under the fridge, around the stove etc, and had what looked like a 99% kill rate. I’d like to think I had 100%, but the bloody things just keep coming back.

My geckos are still here, 3 large ones now, and several small ones hanging off the ceiling and walls, 2 small ones live permanently in my bedroom, I’ve not seen them venture past the doorway but the ones in the rest of the house travel through most of the rooms. Lord knows what they find to survive on, I’ve always got hundreds of really tiny ants everywhere, that sting like a sharp hot needle if they get on you, so i guess the geckos don’t bother with them, and I’ve not seen a spider in here in 9 months. Unlike Komunimboko where bloody Huntsman spiders were everywhere.

I gave the truck a try this morning, and of course it started without any fuss, so I went into work and tried to post some bits and pieces, but Telekom were not co-operating. I got a few emails away, or at least I hope they went, I’ll resend them tomorrow morning just to be sure. I haven’t figured out why Skype works really well, but nothing else does. Messenger and YIM are patchy, and opening pages with either FireFox or IE7 can be an exercise in futility at times.

We had the Solomon Island Half Marathon this morning, there were 1,000 visitors in Honiara for it, so I figured that was some of the cause for the crappy internet service today, everyone trying to email out of here after the race. Normally Sunday is the best day for internet, everyone is at church, in the mornings, and the Government offices aren’t open.

As an aside to everything else, I do tend to keep blathering away about the way Government and Council are run here. Apart from the blatant corruption, the bribery, and sheer in your face theft, the other part is the total refusal to deal with things that may be troublesome. Last week Keithie hand delivered to the Mayors office a letter outlining what SEB are doing, and explaining that due to the lack of co-operation, support and expense involved, SEB will not be maintaining all the city parks and gardens in future. It was returned unopened to her office quicker than Keithie herself managed to get back. So now, unless we do what I suggest and have it published in the Star and Island Sun, the mayor can claim he knows nothing about SEB, and what we are doing, and was not informed about the city parks and gardens.

I’ve seen better behaviour from 5 year olds. And this is a Council and Government that calls it self pro-active in attracting business and investment.

Some of the letters in the Star lately have been funny though. There was one last week from someone in Honiara writing about Pacific Casino, just down the hill from me. Wondering why they don’t clean up the roadside outside the Hotel, and pick the rubbish up, cut the weeds, look after the flower beds etc. We used to do it, but as the owner refuses to pay the cost, I stopped the work crew from maintaining the area, well, I stopped all the unpaid work, Pacific Casino was just one of many places. There have been other letters with much the same focus, about other areas of town that we used to maintain, and asking why Council don’t contract SEB to do it, as it is obvious Council do not have the staff, time nor inclination.





I’ve given up with the new phone, I bought a $50 recharge card, but can’t even get the phone to connect so I can put more credit onto it. And I haven’t got a pin number for the phone which is probably not a help either. And that’s another bugbear with Telekom. The recharge cards are only valid for 6 weeks once you activate them, and they only come in 2 prices, $50 and $200, with no credit for any unused amount after 6 weeks. So if you’re like me, and never use the bloody things, it is a waste of $50 every month just to have it in case there is an emergency and Steve needs to contact me.

Thursday 15th October

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Truck with a load of plants going to the new site.


My mind has been on holiday the last 2 days. Well ok, more than it usually is then. Steve sent me the OFFICIAL forms to use for my 6 monthly report that is 3 months overdue, they are full of
“3. Confirm the assignment activities as set out in the assignment description. Indicate whether they have or should be changed and how.

4. Confirm the original indicators chosen for monitoring progress towards achievement of the assignment objectives. Confirm current indicators for monitoring each objective.

5. Provide baseline information for each indicator against which future progress can be monitored”
Questions like that, which make my mind grab a bag and go on vacation. The assignment description is so woolly to start with in the original Position Description I could have been coming here to do brain surgery or digging drains, the range was open.

Being as how nothing is left of the original job, we’re moving out of the Gardens, setting up a new Nursery, the funding that was meant to be available isn’t, I have completely different responsibilities in comparison now, and I’ll be taking days to write up the changes, design new performance and objective descriptions, and completely different progress indicators.

Meanwhile, we’ve got 9,000 plants sitting on plastic at Hasting-Deering, the 2nd container being shifted there tomorrow morning, the office to clear out and move, SIEA to be chased up to connect a temporary power supply, Telekom to chase up to connect a temporary phone and internet connection, all the work crew to keep busy with the normal work as well as shifting and digging up the stock plants, and somehow I don’t think VSA will be getting my report in a hurry at the moment.



Botanic Gardens Nursery now



Botanic Gardens Nursery

We had a brilliant thunder storm all afternoon, rolling rumbles like a badly tuned V8 without a muffler thundering down from the hills south of us. We’re too hidden amongst the trees at the gardens to see any lightning, and I think it mostly happens way back in the mountains anyway. It didn’t start to rain till 3pm, after a couple of hours of thunder warning of it coming. When it did arrive, it came suddenly, and heavily. There is certainly nothing gentle about the rain here, no slow build up or warning, one minute clear skies, the next a torrent of water falling straight down.

I mentioned a few pages back about it looking like a vertical wall of water or similar, it’s hard to imagine until it happens. Walking in it is like swimming in a fast flowing river, except you are standing up and the water is all around you.



Hasting Deering new site



Hasting Deering new site

Tiffany and I were talking today about Komunimboko, and how they manage to live there with very little outside contact. Well we were actually talking about how all the wantok arrive at peoples places and stay and have to be fed, and that lead to what Tiffany sees happening with her family back on Bellona. We’ve talked quite a bit about how everyone is losing the ability to live here now without outside goods, rice, tinned fish, sugar etc. Komunimboko is one of several Rural Training Centres that is slowly getting people back into a lifestyle that is more than subsistence and closer to sustainable and productive landuse.

Anyway, back on track, her family on Bellona have got the habit of contacting her and asking for food to be sent down as there is nothing to eat on the island, and her and David put together food parcels and ship them down. The last time she was down there, the wantok were saying how little there was to eat now, but the pawpaw trees were laden, the taro, kumara patches were all overgrown pineapple and cassava patches were overgrown, and very few people were fishing. Everyone is now dependent on the shop bought goods, and with a lot of the elders gone, there has been no organised agriculture done there for a long time.

Everything is now measured in how much you have from the shop, not by how much you can produce from the fields. I’m not sure how to address the problem, it’s not good for either end of the society. The few that are in Honiara don’t earn enough to provide for an extended wantok back home, and with the cost of everything in Honiara, there isn’t a great deal left from their wages anyway. And with the deeply ingrained wantok system, there is a huge obligation placed on everyone at the same time. Tiffany and David have 12 wantok staying with them, in an unfinished house, none of whom are working, and all having to be fed. I’d be inclined to apply for a divorce from the family, but you can’t do that here.

The Solomon Island Half Marathon is on this weekend, and no I’m not entered. People have started arriving this week, I see what I presume are competitors in the mornings out running the roads, not the usual RAMSI people, I hope we don’t have too many collapsing from the heat. The route goes west from Honiara to Bonege Beach and return, about 21 km, and it’s quite a nice part of the road. Lots of trees, coconut palms alongside the road. You don’t see a lot of the beaches, they are back off the road behind all the vegetation.

All the publicity we’ve been getting the last week or two is paying off. ANZ Bank have donated $10,000 to us today, to help set up, which is really good. We’re still waiting to hear back from Hasting-Deering on the lease, Jason won’t be back from Brisbane till later in the month, so everything is being done by email. He wants to wait till he is back in country before committing HD to too much. But the indications are that so long as what we want isn’t going to interfere with what HD do, everything will be good.

There was a really editorial in the Solomon Star on Tuesday about us, and the lack of support SEB have received from the Council over the years for all the work SEB have done through the town and at the Botanic Gardens.

I’m just frustrated with having spent 9 months and have nothing to show for it all. And it will be another year till everything is in place, or hopefully before then if we can get funding sooner. The good thing is that we start with a clear site, so we should be able to lay out everything properly instead of making stuff fit an existing site. And it is reasonably level as well.

Hi Zoe, hope you haven’t fallen asleep reading all of these ramblings.

It’s 8pm, and for the first time in months there is a choir practising over at the Ba’hai church. Really nice, now the rain has stopped, the air is cool, and the singing is just loud enough to hear, but not that loud it becomes distracting. Nice harmonies, and really clear voices.

I’m going to ask Steve to help me with the assessment report, I’ve been looking at it, and my mind really goes blank. I know a woman wrote the assessment guide, the layout isn’t how a man would have written it, and the wording is all full of fuzzy feel good phrases.

Any comments you know where the comment button is

Singing has finished for the night, I’ve got Paul Butterfield Elektra Years Compilation on now. I’ll have to fill up a few thumb drives with more cds when I get a break next year, Al said he has John Mayall double live albums in Illinois, so I’m going to be owing him heaps by the time I get out of here, if he sends me copies. I just hope The Screaming Orphans are still playing when I get there.

Monday/Tuesday 13th October

Tiffany and Tessie



Tiffany Keithie accepting donation from Eagon Industries

Monday 12th October

Tiffany and I had a nice surprise today. The Korean Consul Attache is in town, he has a house here, and has business interests in Kitano Mendana Hotel. He noticed the improvements made to the town over the past few years since his last visit, and through the Embassy grapevine heard about what was happening. He presented us with a Cheque for SBD$10,000 this morning, which was gratefully accepted by Tiffany.

It’s a start, now if a few more people get involved we’re off to a good start with the new site and beginning.

Tiffany and I are going to draw up a 2 year Strategic Plan, Keithie told us today that she was going to do it, but we both feel that it would be Keithies plan, and bear little relevance to what is possible or achievable. We’ll work up a 2 year development guide as well, and work out what we need to do in each stage once the Lease is approved on the area at Hasting Deering.

I’m already doing layout drawings, working out quantities of various things, crushed coral for bedding, weedmat, watering systems, water tanks.

At least David and Tiffany have worked in Australia for Maryborough Council, and have an idea of what a nursery should look like, There isn’t anything remotely like one here. Add in plant sales so we aren’t just dependent on commercial gardens, and we should be set up in good shape in a year or so.

I’m still sufferring withdrawal from Komunimboko. The 2 days down there were just so nice, quiet, nice surroundings, everyone with something to do, and happy to be doing it. It’s not quite perfect, no phone or internet coverage, I’m not sure now I could really do without it for extended periods now. Too many family and friends to keep in touch with. But then again, none of the people there knew what internet was, most had never seen a television, and the concept of fast food was associated with catching a fish and eating it raw with lemon and coconut cream.

When I think about it, it’s a nice way to live. They have all their food growing there, fish is plentiful, the work load is about 4 hours a day, usually 2 – 3 hours in the mornings in the cool part of the day, and a couple of hours in the late afternoon when it starts to cool down again after the midday heat. They have income from the copra, about $1.80 per kilo at the moment which is the lowest it’s been for a while. Due more to the downturn worldwide I guess, than anything else. Solomon coconut oil is rated the best by the main buyers, almost every bar of soap that has coconut oil in it will be made with Solomon Island oil.

The big copra oil factory is next to the new nursery site, so we get a strong coconut aroma flowing over the field if the wind is in the right direction. It’s nice now, I guess in a few months time we’ll all be sick of it.

Tuesday 13th October

Well, I apologise for all the rude things I’ve been saying about the Solomon Island Post Office. I spent another hour there this morning, and got someone who actually thought about what they were doing. All the parcels are registered in several ledgers, depending on airline, country, and although they’d done the same thing Saturday going through the pages, today he turned back one more page, and hello!, there it was.

Only been there 3 weeks, on a shelf behind several other parcels, now all I have to do is get the phone to work, I may be out of range or something in the house, I keep getting “You are not allowed to make this call” message. Tried it up on the hill, same thing, I’ll let Tiffany sort it out tomorrow.

All of the plants are gone from the nursery now, just digging out the stock plants, carting away the racks and bits and pieces. The office is down to our 2 desks, the computers, Telekom are letting us keep the same number so that is a help, once the 2nd container gets there we can set up in that as a temp arrangement, probably for a few months at least. We won’t be building on the lease ground till next year at the earliest.

It’s been like a sauna today, dry heat, about 32C or a bit hotter, all the work crew came back at lunchtime and promptly fell asleep in the shade.

Clement from Forestry has been down most of the day, settling into the office. We’ve had great pleasure in telling him about al the things he is now responsible for. I think he is starting to realise just how big a hole his Dept Head has dropped him in with the Gardens. We have Woodford School having their Cross Country again later this month, which means 2 days going around all the tracks, repairing, cleaning, cutting the lawn area. It takes us 2 days with 12 crew, Clement has 8, all of whom consider themselves supervisors, not physical staff, so he is going to be having a few problems.

Add to that the Island Sun and Solomon Star newspapers putting items in about how scruffy and untidy the Gardens are looking now that Forestry are maintaining them, Clement has a big job ahead of him.

Oh well, they wanted it, they have it, good luck to them.

Sunday 11th October

I spent a futile couple of hours at the Post Office yesterday trying to find out if either of the parcels I am waiting for have arrived. Rose posted my phone and EPO Vitamins nearly 4 weeks ago, but if they have arrived all I can surmise is that the phone has been stolen and the other stuff in the package has been thrown out. I was talking to a couple of other people there, and from what they said it is a fairly common occurrence, even with registered or parcel-track packages coming into Honiara, for stuff to go missing.
I know I shouldn’t be surprised, when everyone from the Prime Minister down in Government is corrupt, accepting bribes, back handers, it isn’t any great shock to know even the Post Office staff just take stuff without any worry about repercussions. Personally I think it’s time to put a few politicians up against the wall and shoot them. You don’t have to worry about getting any innocent ones.

I didn’t post the pics of Lazarus and his house last time, it was getting too slow with the connection for any more uploads, so here we go. He works for Komunimboko, they don’t supply a house, you build your own. The only tools I saw Lazarus use were a bush knife, some pieces of shell, and a digging stick for the post holes. There are no nails, bolts screws, everything is tied with strips of split cane.

He said it would take him 2 weeks from start to finish to complete, I’m going to be after Steve to go back there soon, once my butt has lost the bruises from the boat.

The roof panels took him 12 minutes to make, probably less if I hadn’t kept asking him to stop while I took a closeup pic of something. 170 roof panels close fitted, probably 5 – 7 per 300mm of roof, it gives a very thick thatch that is really waterproof.

I heard from Carlos in Shull, West Cork this week, well he posted on facebook, with a pic of the flood in Schull, flowing down the main road. An Tigin and the Bunratty were flooded with a bit of damage, Eurospar missed out luckily.

If anyone is looking for me on Facebook, Warren Dennis, I don’t get into it as often as some, the connection can be slow here, up to an hour to open at times.

I’m trying something different this week, sesame bread, using sesame paste. The garlic and herb I made last week was really good, I really need to get out more.

Thursday 8th October

2 days at Kolombano weren’t long enough. Considering that 4 hours of each day was spent being battered about in an aluminium banana boat bouncing from wave top to wave top Steve and I both felt a week would be better. We went down yesterday into the wind, with a slight choppy swell, that had everyone on board soaked in the first 30 minutes. The saving grace was that the sea temp was warm, the wind was hot, and the sun was shining.



We stopped halfway to refuel the boat.



Boat at Kolambano, the palm branches are used as skids to pull the boat over


Kolombano Rural Training Centre is about halfway down the eastern side of Guadacanal, there used to be a road into it, but the floods last February washed the bridges and most of the track away, and it hasn’t been repaired yet. The Training Centre is run for intensive farming training for predominately 20 to 30 year olds, to enable them to return to their villages and use the skills to improve the food production in the villages. They have a huge area under cultivation, I have no idea of the size, in 3 hours walking I only saw half of the farm area. A large coconut plantation for copra production, acres of cassava, pawpaw, eggplant, cabbage, kumara, lettuce. There are normally 20 students there for a year at a time, with very little contact with outside. The copra is taken by canoe once or twice a month to Honiara, and any surplus vegetables taken to the markets for sale, the cash being used to buy supplementary food, flour, salt, sugar, tinned tuna.



Coconut plantation



Aubergine crop

I’ll post some pictures in Google Earth, if you find Honiara, Kolombano is about half way to the South East of there.



Church building

The guest house is good, apart from an amazingly large collection of Huntsman spiders. There is no electricity, water is collected in rain tanks, and also a well. House lighting is kerosene lamps, and bottled gas for cooking in the guesthouse, but over wood fires through the rest of the settlement. Given the large number of people there, most of the food is cooked in a Mutu, similar to a Hangi, heated stones, with banana leaves over them, food wrapped in more banana leaves, then a cover placed over the top and left for 2 – 3 hours. It made me feel a bit homesick actually, even the taste of the food reminded me of New Zealand.





Inside the guest house, comfortable apart from the colony of huntsman spiders

I’m a bit annoyed we only had the 2 days available, I met Lazarus there, he is building his house in the settlement. Yesterday he was only up to the framing stage, and starting to make the leaf panels for the roof. The pictures explain the process more than words, but the panel he made while I was taking photographs took 12 minutes to make, and he needed 170 for the roof. His estimate to complete the house, with floor, walls and roof was 2 weeks from the time he started putting the posts in. No nails, all tied with cane strips, and notched and wedged to fit. The roof will last 7 years before needing replacement. The walls should last 10 years if they are protected by the roof overhang.



Interior of the school house



The first thing Steve and I noticed is that it was considerably cooler there than Honiara, in the sun it was much the same, about 30 – 32C, but at night it dropped to 24C and I actually felt cold during the night. All we could put it down to was the amount of vegetation surrounding and through the settlement, there is very little waste ground, producing food is the main purpose.



Interior of the Kai house, food preparation area

I saw several owls during the night, Steve and I were out on the verandah till 1am talking and in general having a good BS session. I’ve had pics of the Solomon Island Giant Frogs in here before, and mentioned how every fact sheet describes them as rare and endangered. We counted 67 in the short length of the track to the toilet block last night, then spent a few hours with the torch on the verandah spotlighting them through the gardens below. If that is endangered I think someone needs to go do a recount. The locals gather rice bags of them and use them for shark fishing.



Kai house, cooking house to the left

Steve finally realised I haven’t put my 6 monthly report in yet, after 9 months, so I promised faithfully I would have it to him by November. The problem is that I haven’t actually done anything yet, other than have arguments with Keithie since I’ve been here. Still, she has described me as “ a difficult man to deal with”, which means I don’t do everything she wants done.

I can see your head nodding in agreement there Libby.

We arrived back to Honiara mid afternoon, to find crowds of people on the beach front at Rove, then we found out there had been an earthquake a few hours earlier in Vanuatu, and a tsunami warning had be put out for the Solomons. Quite why everyone was down at the beach had me worried about the sanity that prevails here. It isn’t as if no-one hasn’t seen a tsunami and the effects here, we had one at the start of the year, and a major one in 2007 that wiped out most of the northern and western side of Guadacanal. But there they were, camera phones at the ready to take pics of the waves coming in. On the shoreline.

I’m reasonably sunburnt, tired, my butt is sore and bruised from being bounced up and down on the aluminium seats, I’ll let the pictures tell most of the story, and fill in with more once I’ve caught up with some sleep.

Tuesday 6th October

Hibiscus flower in the Nursery




We’re slowly moving everything to Ranandi, to the Hasting-Deering site. It is looking like we may be able (yes I know, there are a lot of looking like, and maybes in there) to set up permanently at the rear of the paddock. Huge paddock, 200 metres by 180 metres not being used for anything other than storage by one of the building firms for their scaffolding at the moment.

The front bit we have got till it is all decided isn’t too bad, a wide narrow strip with a couple of shade trees, and room for 2 containers, one for storage and the other we’ll convert into a temporary office once we can get power hooked up to it. I spent a bit of time this morning with Hendry laying out plastic for weed control, and the first plants started going out this afternoon. Watering is going to be a problem for a while, we’ll have to use our water tank on the truck, fill up from the fire main and hand water samesame as usual.

Bruce and Keithie like the look of the site, Bruce is keen, and can see the possibilities of turning this whole mess around. Keithie was away to the Japanese Consul this week to try to find some way we can still be eligible for the funding grant from them, which would really set us off to a good start in the new place.





I’ve been watching a Custard apple tree (Annona muricata) along the driveway for a while, it finally set some fruit a couple of months back, and I was hoping to finally get one. Jepthtah arrived at lunchtime with the biggest fruit from it, the pest. Anyway, we all got a piece of it, deliciously smooth and creamy flavour, I suppose you could say it had a custard taste, but with a hint of sweet spice in it as well, messy things to eat though, your face gets a wash from it.



Jacinta with Custard apple (Annona muricata)

I’m away with Steve from Wednesday till late Thursday, maybe Friday to the Rural Training Centre in East Guadacanal. We’ve got the boat organised properly this week, I was told to bring the fishing rods, and I’m trying to find mask/snorkel/fins to do a bit of diving as well. My distaste for going to several shops for one thing from each is a bit of a burden though, one shop had good fins, but nothing else, another had snorkels, and fins, I’m still trying to find a shop that has decent masks, not the cheap plastic ones before 10 am tomorrow.

I’m using rechargable batteries in my hearing aids now, finally got a pair that recharge. They are meant to last only 1 day, about 10 to 12 hours, I’m getting 2 days out of them before recharging which is good. I won’t have to worry about going deaf while we’re away, and naturally you can’t get the disposable ones here.

I’m still waiting for the phone Rose sent me 3 weeks ago, Steve and I both believe it’s gone missing at the post office sorting room, along with anything else that was in the parcel. The concept of honesty is taking a long time to filter through here, and now having said that, it will turn up tomorrow in all likelihood.

Although you do notice a tendency for everyone here to prefer to take things, rather than ask for the use of them. The last time I was on Savo half my fish hooks, lures went missing, which got me a bit jaundiced, I did have plenty to pick from, the intention on my part was to have left them with the people I was staying with, and anyone who wanted them, after they just took stuff, I changed my mind.

I’m expecting the same thing to happen down in East Guadacanal as well, so long as my rods and reels don’t go missing I’ll wear having the hooks, lures and traces go missing. Still not cheap though.

I may get a soft bait set when I go back to NZ in February, and try it here. I haven’t seen anyone using soft baits, H.Longs have a few packets, but not the rod and reel combination and braided line to really make the most of them.



Tiffany at the Memorial Gardens, new sign and a big clean up.

To say the Government Finances are in a mess is an understatement. Various Departments now owe the Electricity Department $1,300,000 in unpaid accounts, but the MPs find it perfectly possible to grant them selves a $400,000 termination grant if they fail to get re-elected, to give all past and present PMs a house, car and full pension for life, even if in one case the person was only PM for 8 days till the riots and unrest forced him to stand down, a grant of $50,000 to every MPs wife at the end of each Parliamentary term, and an increase in MPs salaries to $180,000 per year.
It’s a good demonstration of grab it while you can, and to hell with the consequences.

Sunday 4th October

Brilliant sunny morning, it all looked good for the day. Went down to Adeles house about 9.30 to see if she wanted a lift to Kukum Market, but she was still half asleep, after her week at Tulagi. I got the impression yesterday when she got home that the work side of the trip was mind numbingly boring, and the usual waitwait, but the after work stuff was interesting.

The prices continue to drop slightly at the market, I got away with spending $45 and I think I have about the same as last week, when it was $50. I got a variety of banana hands today, short fat red ones, fat little yellow ones and some longer ones a bit like a Cavendish, but with a lot better flavour. Pineapples are $10 to $20 each, there’s a bit of difference between $10 and $20, but not between $15 and $20 ones. Lots of bok choy, spinach, slippery cabbage, the heaps of kumara are getting bigger for the same price, $10 for about 2 kilos. Coconuts are still $1, and lots of mangoes @$2 - $3 each. Although with the number of mangoes all over the ground around my house I don’t need to be paying for them.

The hot weather makes going outside first thing in the morning interesting, as far as the smell goes. If you have ever smelt fermenting fruit, that is what it is like here now. All the ripe or damaged mangoes, (the fruit bats tend to take a bite, then it falls off the tree) scattered over the ground start to ferment in a matter of hours and the smell is rather pungent. It overpowers the frangipani with a sweet sickly smell, it’s almost nice, for a minute, then the vinegary sharp scent hits and I’m pleased to be away for the day.

Went into work to upload the previous post, I was only there for about 30 minutes when the heavens opened and it’s been continuous rain ever since. And heavy rain, not a shower. The roads were flooding when I left to come home, I had a few interesting driving moments in the truck on the way with water over the road and the truck wanting to go sideways in a few places. Never apply brakes in water, it is not recommended, even if a pedestrian does walk out in front of you without looking. I should have hit them and carried on, it would have saved me getting worried when the truck went sliding sideways on Mendana Ave outside the Supreme Court.

I had a quick look at the Arts Centre where the Monks are setting up for tomorrow, but they were looking rather bedraggled in the rain as well, not a lot of activity that I saw yet. If we don’t get a summons for a meeting tomorrow I’ll go down with the camera and get some photos.

Hi to Oisin, about time we caught up again. I’ll email the pics I have of the stained glass church windows this week.

Had a productive afternoon though, I’ve got a dozen herb and garlic buns made, and 2 loaves of herb and garlic bread made, so I’m set for the week. I’ve given up trying to find sardines here, all the ones we can get are the poor quality sardines in tomato sauce, the ones John West don’t want by the look of them. I’m buying Fijian Mackerel in vegetable oil now, not as juicy as sardines, more drier flesh, but better than the sardines in tomato sauce. And cheaper as well. Only $8 to $10 a tin instead of the $20 - $50 for sardines. And on herb and garlic toast they taste perfectly fine.

Saturday 3rd October

Another week of power cuts, broken internet connections, in general, samesame as usual.


The mystery pic I posted is of Tiffany and her daughter Renee, here’s one of Tessie.



And if you ever wondered where kapok comes from, here's the tree, Cieba pentranda


The large fruit capsules contain kapok, you would get about 4 pillows worth off one tree this size.

For the past couple of months there has been a gang of guys from one of the settlements going around at night breaking into peoples houses, beating up the owners and taking whatever they could grab, till Tuesday night. They attacked the wrong house, the Police Commissioners, beat up the 3 security guards, threatened the Commissioner and his wife, stole laptops, mobile phones etc then left.

The gang has been incredibly hard to catch for the past 2 months, despite everyone knowing the cars they drive, probably exactly who they are, and where they live. They got picked up Wednesday afternoon, 9 of the 10, I guess until the Police Commissioner gets hit it’s all a bit too much like work to be out looking for them.

It was in the Star on Wednesday morning, and we were taking bets at work on how long it would take to finally catch the people concerned. It’s been nearly 200 burglaries in the past 2 months by the same group, one house has been hit 3 times in a fortnight. It will be interesting reading once they get to court.

Tiffany and I are still packing the office up, it’s not on our list of high priority things yet. The container was meant to have been moved to the Hasting-Deering site on Friday, but neither of us could be bothered checking. Monday Keithie is back, so there will be a meeting to sort it out hopefully. If the Nursery isn’t go to be continued with I’ll be out of a job, which I already know. It would be a good thing to get going from scratch though, at least we could make it a viable proposition without relying on Aid Funding, but I can’t see Keithie spending money on getting it going.

I never fail to be amazed at what happens here, I know I should be used to things but there is always something new happens each week. We got new boots and overalls for the work crew last week, to replace the worn out ones. Issued them all last Wednesday, Thomas arrives at work Monday morning with out boots or overalls. His uncle had wanted to borrow his boots over the weekend, and his brother borrowed his overalls for work on the wharf. Then he asked us to buy him some more boots and overalls because his uncle had gone back to Makira with his boots, and his brother had ripped the overalls unloading a ship etc etc. I was feeling sympathetic till Tiffany told me he had done the same thing the year before, and the year before that. So Thomas is working barefoot as usual without overalls.

I’m pleased there is no Dept of Safety here. I was tempted to tell Thomas that he couldn’t work without boots and overalls, but he is one of the really good workers on the crew, so we just let it go. I have no doubt that if we did replace his boots, they wouldn’t last the week till another of his wantok “borrowed” them and we’re not going to supply an entire village with work boots and overalls.

We worked Friday, the Monks Fire Festival Organiser contacted us a month ago, needing 800 one metre Carillia branches to decorate the altar with, to be delivered either Friday or Saturday. I asked whoever of the crew who wanted to work, they were all welcome to come in and help, with pay for once. Jacinta arrived still drunk from the night before, and David wasn’t in the best of moods either, he’d been playing chess till 2am, and getting beaten so he’d had a few bottles of Solbrew as well. We managed to get all the branches cut and delivered, and dropped everyone off when Yanni from Heritage arrived at the office looking for Jacinta. She was meant to be at an interview for the head gardeners position at Heritage, but obviously had partied the night before, and forgotten all about the interview. I don’t know if she’ll get a second chance, she’d be good for it, at the moment she’s the supervisor for the womens crew at work. I was going to go and find her, but Tiffany said not to bother, if she couldn’t get herself to an interview, which she’s been trying for since May, running around after her won’t make any difference.

Mother sent me a book by Ashley Wilson, who was here prior to the Civil War, with VSA based on Temotu. It’s interesting reading the problems he faced, and describes in his journal. All the things he saw happening leading up to the unrest and tension period are all back with us again 10 years later. The unemployment, Government corruption and bribery, the lack of any infrastructure, poor facilities, no reliable shipping between island provinces. The list goes on but I think you get the picture.

There is discussion now about changing the election process from first past the post to something else, either preferential or some other system. 50% of the current MPs were elected with less than 30% of the vote in their province, and of the rest only 10% gained more than 51%. So they don’t have to pay off many people after the election this way. I’ve mentioned that the elections are next year here, and the bribery is starting now, with villages being given solar panels, water tanks, new houses, and promises of more after the election if they vote the right way. The fact that the money is rightfully meant to be spent on the villages, is lost as the MP for the area has the say on what, who and where it is spent, so if you want something done for your village, you have to vote for the right person or else you will get nothing. It causes a lot of problems within a village when the MP has wantok there, and they receive the benefits, and the rest of the village miss out. It is common to see villages where only a few houses have water tanks, solar panels, generators, and the local shop is also run by the MPs wantok. The rest of the village miss out if they don’t sign pledges to support the MP.

Someone is probably thinking “well, why don’t the others set up their own store, shop, etc” Everything to the islands has to be shipped in, and when the MP can control who gets stuff delivered, opening a shop in opposition to the MPs wantok won’t last long when you can’t get supplies bought in. Or when you can, the price for shipping is going to be 3 or 4 times the cost of the other person.

There are a huge number of tourists in town at the moment, and will be for the next month. We have 450 Monks from Japan here for a week performing “Fire Cleansing” rituals for all the Japanese war dead on Guadacanal, a half marathon in 2 weeks, the South Pacific Public Services Annual Forum, which all means that the hotels and tourist places are booked out.

It also means the pickpockets and bag snatchers are having a field day at Central Markets as well. Adrian stopped a group going in there on Friday, all white, with big handbags, back packs, cameras slung all over, and told them to either close everything up, or go back to their hotel and leave most of the stuff behind. They wouldn’t have lasted 2 minutes in Central Market. The pikininis are the worst, they crouch below the tables and reach into the bags when people stop to look at anything, or hide in the clothing racks and grab stuff out of the bags.

You can tell the locals here, or people that have been here a while. You wear any bags slung over your neck, with the bag on your chest. Never slung on the side or behind.

I went in there on Friday to get some pictures, but after having some Kwaso drunk guy with a bushknife abuse me, and then start to swing the knife at me I decided that I didn’t really want or need any pictures of the place. Totally different to Kukum Fish Market, I can take pictures, chat, have a few jokes, buy stuff and know I’m not being ripped off there.

There is a new group of American Peace Corps people arrived, all young, in their early 20’s. Totally unprepared for what they are finding here. They can’t believe that there are still places on earth where you may have to go without things, like clean drinking water, electricity, where you are safer not going to hospital, rubbish isn’t collected. A lot of them don’t have the skills needed here either, or the ability yet to adapt to the local conditions and lack of resources. It isn’t a simple matter of walking into a shop and buying what you need. Especially once you get out of Honiara.

Personally I think VSA and AusAid give the volunteers a lot better background information, and the selection process with VSA and AusAid is more suited. They pick the people for the need, not like the US Peace Corps where it appears all you need do is volunteer, then they send you and try to find something in the host country for you to do. Very few of the ones I’ve spoken to this week had any idea of the conditions here, and none of them had skills that I would have thought were needed. Still, it will be a good period of learning for them, and it will certainly give them a better world view than they had at the start of their 12 months.